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Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their homes during the past week. Mailbox Monday, for April, is being hosted by MariReads.

I was at Chapters a little over a week ago. I didn't post this last week because the individual hosting last week's Mailbox wasn't up when I expected it and so I missed it. But in any case, I held it over until this week. Here is what I purchased:

I have heard good things about it and it has been on my TBR pile for about a year or so. I hope to read this one during the summer months.

Movies have a rating system to help guide the consumer weed out adult/violent/inappropriate kinds of films. Video games do, too. Do you think BOOKS should have a ratings system?

Flat out, no. Reason being is that books are so subjective in regards to the content material that is found inbetween the covers of a book. What one person may find objectionable may not be objectionable to another person. And its a rather arbitrary way of evaluating books. And in a way it promotes censorship, especially among young readers who are trying to expand what they read and are exploring books that deal with more mature topics as they move up in their reading abilities.

Its that time of year again! This is a read-a-thon that I always look forward to. Most times I have only been able to make approximately 12 hours, but the aim is always to read the full 24 hours. And this time around is no exception.

I know what some of you are thinking that I am nuts to read the full 24 hours, but when you do a mixture of audio and print books, you will be able to get through it. And you don't have to do the full 24 hours, only the hours that you think you will be able to complete. This past October I maybe got in about 18 hours of reading and most of that was during a road trip from Kamloops, BC to Edmonton, Alta. to see my sister.

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and Bookish, where book bloggers share their Top Ten lists on everything bookish. This week its the top ten books I recommend the most to other readers.

This is the sort of list that evolves over time and new books are added to this list and because the books that I recommend are dependent on the person that I am recommending it to. But here are some staples that I will likely always recommend to readers.

1) The Daring Game by Kit Pearson - great for middle school readers (grade 5-8) and is also set at an all-girls boarding school.

2) The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi - read this about the same time when I read The Daring Game and is really a great read for middle school readers. It is also an award winner and it is a book that adults would like as well.

3) Guests of War trilogy by Kit Pearson - for the same group of readers as above. It was one of the first "series" that I read and really liked the fact that it talked abo…

I haven't done this since September mainly because I have forgotten about this, but I will try to get this up more often and therefore a bit more completed.

Up until yesterday, March isn't going great. I got two books completed and can't really seem to finish anything that I have started. But I am hoping that April will be a bit better, considering two of the books that I am currently reading are library books and not books that have long loans lengths on them and that I am planning on reading much more in the coming weeks.

Here is my starter list of books:1) War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy 2) Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky3) The Accursed by Joyce Carole Oates4) The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty5) A Red Herring without Mustard by Alan Bradley6) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee7) The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger8) The Help by Kathryn Stockard

I am feeling frustrated due to the fact that I can't seem to finish many books. Of course it is the result of the fact that I went through about two months of feeling blue and not really myself and the fact that I just couldn't get myself to read for long stretches of time. I think the primary reason that I am feeling this sort of frustration is that I was able to get a lot of reading done in the first 4 months of 2012, but this year I just can't seem to finish anything at the moment. Maybe its due to the fact that the readalong for Crime and Punishment is really going longer than it probably ought to go (at least I think it is; it could be completed within two months instead of three) and that I am feeling deluged by the books that I requested in the final months of 2012 finally coming through from the library. Maybe I should just plod along and find something relatively easy to read and maybe focus on one or two books instead of trying to read many at one time. Or …

• What are you currently reading?• What did you recently finish reading?• What do you think you'll be reading next?

Answers:1) What are you currently reading?Too much. But I am likely going to be focusing on a couple of library books I picked up recently (I don't want to get off the couch as I typed this), Crime and Punishment, and War & Peace. I will probably read a bit of Outlander and possibly something else.

2) What did you recently finish reading?Titanic: Voices from the Disaster by Deborah Hopkinson (review)

3) What do you think you'll be reading next?Probably either Moon over Manifest or The Whole Truth or whatever I pick up from Chapters in the coming days.

Description: Deborah Hopkinson weaves together the voices and stories of real TITANIC survivors and witnesses to the disaster -- from the stewardess Violet Jessop to Captain Arthur Rostron of the CARPATHIA, who came to the rescue of the sinking ship. Packed with heartstopping action, devastating drama, fascinating historical details, loads of archival photographs on almost every page, and quotes from primary sources. (via Goodreads.com)

Thoughts: The book was well presented in that you got a real sense of what the ship was like from the view of a first-class, second-class, and third-class passenger. And they also included the viewpoints of the crew that survived that fateful night. I wouldn't describe this book as being heartstopping myself, but if you didn't have a lot of knowledge a…

Some of you probably woke up to the news that Google Reader is going out of service and I know that there are a few of you who do use the service. But there is a reader that can allow you to read the posts on continuing basis without interruption and its called bloglovin'. Norther Belle Diaries has provided an excellent tutorial for you to use to make sure that you can continue to read your blogs. You can find it here: http://www.northernbellediaries.com/2013/03/importing-google-reader-feed-to.html

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and Bookish, where book bloggers share their Top Ten lists on everything bookish. This week its the top ten books that are going to make it on my Spring TBR list.

1) The Whole Truth by Kit Pearson - I have been wanting to get to this book since this winter.

Teaser Tuesdayis a bookish meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. Anybody can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read* Open to a random page* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!﻿

At the beginning of July, during a spell of exceptionally hot weather, towards evening, a certain young man came down on to the street from the little room he rented from some tenants in S--- Lane and slowly, almost hesitantly, set off towards K-----n bridge.~ p. 5, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or somebody else and why you chose that/those book(s).

I recently bought Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. I bought because I had borrowed the book from the library electronically but when I saw that Kobo was having a sale and that particular book was included in the sale, I couldn't help but purchase it.

I realize that this is slightly late, but where I am its still Sunday. Today has been somewhat lazy; part of its due to the changing of clocks overnight and part of its due to the fact that the last couple of days I have done a lot of running around for my bookclub meeting yesterday afternoon and I think a part of is that I am just purely exhausted and didn't realize until today.

That being said, I really didn't get much completed in the past week, although I seem to be keep plugging away at reading Crime & Punishment, which seems to just get darker and darker as the book moves on and therefore makes me more and more depressed. I understand the need to read these sort of books, but sometimes I wish that readalongs choices would be books that are a little happier. I understand that its the darker books that seem to get the most discussion, but it just seems that the more I read classic lit, the more depressed I get.

Description:In a world with no poverty, no crime, no sickness and no unemployment, and where every family is happy, 12-year-old Jonas is chosen to be the community's Receiver of Memories. Under the tutelage of the Elders and an old man known as the Giver, he discovers the disturbing truth about his utopian world and struggles against the weight of its hypocrisy. (via Goodreads.com)

Thoughts: I really liked this particular book club read. It sparked a lot of discussion during out group meeting on a variety of topics that are presented throughout the book. While I was reading the book, I realized that actually I had only read about a quarter of the book shortly after the book came out. Maybe it was the disjointy nature of the book that put me off to the book in general at the time when it had first came ou…

The Book Blogger Hophas moved to the Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. I hope you are able to join me.

This week, Billy asks:

What is your favourite book set in a different country than the one that you live in?I have a lot of favourite books that are set in different countries other than the one that I live in, but I would have say that I would have to choose Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte would be my favourite and I love the description of the moor that Jane ends up at after she leaves Thornfield Hall.

Tell us what you are reading right now - what do you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what are you (or, aren't) enjoying it?One of the books that I am reading right now is Outlander. I have tried to read this book a number of times and for some reason I just can't get into the book. There is something that keeps drawing me to the book but for some reason I just can't get into the storyline; I am hoping that I can this coming week, but I really don't know with my bookclub coming up on the weekend, but I will see. Maybe I need to just go to Starbucks and read for a couple of hours out of it.

For such a short month, I was able to get quite a bit accomplished, the least of which was actually having the motivation to read again. I know for some of you that may seem like such a huge accomplishment, but when you feel blue for about six weeks and there doesn't seem anyway out of it, its huge.

For what seemed such a lousy month, I managed to get 4 books completed and a number of books under way for the two readalongs that they are associated with. I know that some of you managed to a lot of books completed during this month, but to me 4 seems huge, at least this year. I think this time last year I got like 6 or 7 books completed. I realize that this is super short, but I really need to get some reading done.